Dan Abrams' show "Live PD" was canceled as Americans take to the streets demanding an end to police brutality. It was revealed that footage of Javier Ambler, who died in the custody of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office last year, was destroyed.
Ambler was tased four times by police after he failed to turn his bright headlights down. The footage of Ambler's death would have proved details about the death, but Abrams said that no one ever asked him for it and A&E wouldn't air it anyway.
Abrams, who also owns the website Mediaite told CNN that the footage being trashed wasn't the reason that the show was canceled, it was just a "piece." He claimed that if they had aired the footage they would have been criticized.
The long-running show COPS was also canceled after it became known that police unions were controlling the content so it showed police in a more favorable light. Abrams said that the two shows can't be compared because his show didn't always portray the police in a positive light.
In an expose earlier this year, the Tulsa World spoke to innocent people featured in Abrams' show who were used for entertainment under the guise of "police transparency."
"A stolen vehicle pursuit featured on the show as 'earlier in Tulsa' ended in [Carlotta Chaplin's] driveway, and the suspects, one of whom she knew, ran into her north Tulsa home. She wasn’t home, but her adult son and his friend were, and they told the intruders to get out," she said. "They were soon all walking out, ordered to do so at gunpoint by police."
"Their faces blurred, Chaplin’s son and his friend were handcuffed while officers determined who was involved, but they were eventually released, as “Live PD” host Dan Abrams noted on air," the report said. Still, the whole situation degraded her son and scared him “half to death.”
“All my neighbors were all outside, coming down the street,” Chaplin said. “They thought somebody had killed somebody, there were so many police.”
When asked about it, Abrams explained "that's what happens in the news business."
"Dan, it's not a news show, it's an entertainment program," said CNN host Brianna Keilar.
The show airs on A&E, which stands for the Arts & Entertainment Network.
"Look, it may be, but the reasoning is still the same," said Abrams, claiming that sometimes people who don't want to be involved are "brought into things they don't want to be involved in" because of situations that happen.
"No, these are -- Dan, these are people who are not arrested," said Keilar.
After the interview, Keilar went to talk about the work Sean Penn was doing to help with testing for COVID-19 cases, but he wanted to comment on Abrams' interview previously.
"First I want to say thank you for having me. You do your job very well. It was great to see you challenge that used car salesman selling everything and saying nothing about what's going on in the country right now," said Penn.
See the interviews below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
